The Damage Love Creates
by FutureAirbender18
Summary: Astro is seventeen now... feelings are starting to work into his heart that make him feel as if...he actually had a heart. And Cora is the cause of it. Astro and Cora fluff!
1. Chapter 1

**Time: 7:40 PM**

**Hey everyone! I decided to take a shot at writing an Astro Boy fanfic. But, sadly, it just ain't fighting material. I'm not that great at writing, much less coming up with action scenes and fighting and all that. There might be some of that in this story, but I just gotta think it up first. Strain my brain a little, ya know? I'm much better at writing romance and fluffiness! xD **

**Anyways, if you happen to stumble upon this, please review, and let me know what you think. :) I love it when people let me know what they are thinking deep down about what I have written. Thanks.**

**Disclaimer: **_ Astro Boy has been around for a loooooooonnnnggg time. I don't think I am old enough to own it if I tried. Just letting you know. :)_

* * *

He watched as she was looking at the magician ahead of them. She smiled, her eyes bright and cheerful, her grin making his chest feel tight and ready to burst from some sort of feeling he couldn't explain. He wiped his hands his jeans, and then caught himself and brought them up to his face, studying them.

His palms were sweating.

_That's weird,_ he thought, and absentmindedly wiped them on his jeans again. _That's really weird._

His eyes glanced over in her direction again. It had been six years since he met her. Six long amazing years. Now seventeen, he just couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Literally.

Astro forced himself to look away and study the magician that was playing at their local coffee shop. Feelings had been churning up inside of him for so long now, and it wasn't until recently that he had realized that he was _in love._ He was in love with Cora.

Subconsciously, he had always known that he was, but he wasn't ready to face it. He was afraid that she would laugh at his face and brush him off.

Astro closed his eyes for a moment, thinking to himself. _It's so hard; telling your best friend that you have feelings for them that are more than friendship. Do I even dare? I am pretty sure she doesn't feel the same way._

He reached up and rubbed his temple, resting his elbow on the armrest between their chairs. He felt his elbow brush against something and opened his eyes, glancing down to see what it was his arm had hit.

To his surprise, he found Cora's elbow occupying the same armrest. She had stopped smiling, and was looking down at where their elbows were touching, her eyes wide, her face on fire.

Astro's mouth felt dry. They were touching! He pulled away suddenly, as if her arm were on fire.

"Oh! Um…..s-sorry about t-that! Didn't…know you were um… there."

He was blushing furiously, his hand now on the back of his neck, rubbing nervously.

"No. No," she said, waving her hand in his direction, "It was my fault, I was j-just too excited from the show, I didn't pay attention to what was going on."

Her eyes cast downwards, and then back up to the show in front of them. Astro watched her watching the magician.

Her long, dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, half loose, half in braids. She wasn't wearing very much makeup, and Astro didn't care, for he was afraid if she used more than she wanted too, it would take away her beauty.

Astro blinked, his chest feeling tight once again. _What is wrong with my body?_ He frowned, furrowing his eyebrows, and looked down at his chest. It was moving up and down, like normal, from his breathing. But why did it feel as if….as if he had a heart?

Astro bit his lower lip. Back when he thought he was still a human, before he discovered he was a robot, he remembered how it felt to have a heart. To have the blood pumping through his veins, to feel his pulse.

He shook his head, trying to get the memory of those time out of his mind. When he tried to remember the past and what it felt like to be human, he ended up hallucinating and _actually_ believing that could feel his body functioning like a human. It always felt…..so real.

So…. human.

Oh. Why couldn't he be human? For his father? For Cora?

Before he knew it, Cora was shaking his shoulder, and he blinked his eyes absentmindedly, and looked at her, and her beautiful atmosphere that always hung around her.

_Bad idea Astro. _ The back of his neck flared up and he was quite thankful for the darkness in the café, so she couldn't see his flustered colored face. He averted his eyes and looked at her shoes.

"Come on Astro," she said happily, "Let's go walk in the park."

_Calm down Astro, it's just a walk. Nothing more. Don't make it more than it is. _

He mentally kicked himself in the head.

"S-sure," he stammered, and pulled himself out of the chair, following her out the coffee shop door.

Entering the park a few blocks down, he listened to her talk nothing but praise about the magician they had just seen. She was infatuated with the thing he called "magic," even though Astro had seen though the man in the beginning, his vision allowing him to see through the man's sleeves and see all of his tricks and how they worked. Astro didn't say anything and just smiled to himself, thinking how beautiful she was when she was happy.

She gasped in delight at seeing the swings on the play ground. No kids were around at this time of night, as they should be. It was well past ten o' clock.

Cora leaped onto one of the swings and pushed herself off, laughing her head off. It was moments like these that she would let her true side out and become a kid again, and laugh and giggle until there was no more left in her.

Astro leaned against a tree near the swing set, crossing one leg over the other. He smiled softly to himself, studying her intently. Her long black pony tail swished behind her, hitting her back as she swung back and forth.

Oh, what he would do to be human and ask her out.

She stopped her laughing and just swung back and forth, her head tilted up towards the night sky, looking at the stars shining down on them.

"You know," Astro piped up, "It isn't safe for a young lady, such as yourself, to be out here this late at night."

Her head didn't move. She continued to study the stars.

"It's okay," she whispered, knowing that Astro could hear her, "You're here to protect me."

Astro's eyes widened. His chest felt tight again, and it suddenly felt hard to breathe.

_What in the world is wrong with me!_

"What do you mean?" he asked cheekily.

It was then that she turned her head to him, still swinging high, her long beautiful legs dangling from the seat, moving back and forth.

She paused for a moment, just looking at him. Then, her face coloring a little, she looked down at the ground and continued swinging.

"You're Astro Boy."

He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah, so?"

She paused again, shifting her eyes upwards again. "I mean, I'm safe. You wouldn't let anything happen to me. That's why I'm not worried. Nobody in their right mind would do anything with you near."

She glanced at him, as he moved slowly towards her. Her eyes quickly looked over his tall form, and she looked down again. "Unless of course, you didn't plan on protecting me."

He sat down on the swing next to her.

His voice was low, having changed over the years, something that surprised both him, and his father that he would actually grow and change. He was a _robot _after all.

"I will always protect you," he said more to himself than to her.

She felt her heart pound wildly. She was hoping dearly that he couldn't pick it up with his hearing.

She looked at him, locking his eyes, his beautiful brown eyes. She blinked, tearing them away from his, and smiled mischievously at him.

"Then I have nothing to worry about," she said slowly, her eyes studying the stars.


	2. Chapter 2

**Time: 8:33 PM **

**So, where have I been? Where indeed. It's a long and sad story where I got wrapped up in things that weren't important, and forgot about everything else. I hope to get back into the writing groove, so be patient with me, and thank you to EVERYONE who has every commented on my work. It touches my heart!**

_*Disclaimer: Don't own Astroboy._

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He sat in his room, staring at the ceiling, arms behind his head, lying on his bed. His mind was whirling. It had been two days. Two days since he had seen Cora and they were in the park together.

Astro closed his eyes, images replaying behind his eyelids.

_Stupid programming, _he thought bitterly. It just _had_ to be programmed into him to remember images and replay them like a movie when he tried thinking about something.

He reached up to scratch his head, making sure not to mess up his gelled hair. He had done it so much as a kid, it was basically naturally pointed in two spikes now. But that didn't stop him from continuing his ritual every morning when he was getting dressed for the day.

He shifted himself on his back so he could tilt his head and look out the window at Metro City. It was still as beautiful as ever.

Smiling slyly to himself he got shot up off his bed and all in one motion, pushed the window open and jumped out, free falling.

Too bad gravity had no effect on him. Feeling the power run through his body, his rocket boosters fired up, and he shot out through the sky. Racing across the city, he grinned cheekily to himself. There was not one robot like him. He was strictly unique. Strictly Astro.

The power felt amazing. So much power. So many things he could do.

But that power had a price that came with the package. The one thing he wanted, the only thing that seemed to matter as he grew older, was what his emotions could only wish of wanting.

He soon found himself in the outskirts of the city, at a deserted park to which anyone rarely ever came to. This is where he always came when he was bothered by something, mostly Cora related. Walking to the edge of the city, where the thick metal bars signaled the edge of the floating metro city, he flickered his boosters and rose to the top of the bars, eventually sitting on the edge of the cliff-like surroundings.

Looking down at the surface, he felt a twang of remembrance of his time down there- well, the first time. He and Cora made sure they went down there on a daily basis to help rebuild a smaller city that the orphanage kids had decided they would do, instead of make the journey to the floating city above them.

He heaved a heavy sigh, his eyes running over the rubble below.

_Why did it have to be so complicated?_ He had all the memories of Toby, but….lies were all they were. Why couldn't he have actually been Toby? That way his father would treat him like a real son, and….he could actually be worthy of someone to date Cora. She was an incredibly beautiful and popular girl after all. He couldn't count how many times she had been asked out in the past year, let alone got hit on whenever they went somewhere together. Sure, she was a year and a half older than him, but he honestly could deny his feelings for her.

_His feelings._ Those indeed were his downfall. He had all the power in the world, right inside his chest, but all the power in the world wouldn't….couldn't make him human enough that he could be with Cora.

Groaning, he brought his hands to his temple. There was a strange panging in his head, which humans would have diagnosed with a headache, but for a robot…he wasn't quite sure what was going on.

_I must have a few wires rubbing up against each other. I'll have dad check it out later. _Leaning backwards, he let himself fall to the ground only to twirl around at the last second to land on his feet.

Walking now, he decided he would walk home instead of taking the easy sky route. That way, he could walk by Cora's place and see what she was doing. He wasn't being stalker-ish, just curious. Besides, it's what they did most days, after she got out of school. Luckily, he was downloaded with the latest events, data, and research findings on a daily basis, so school was something he didn't even have to bother showing up to.

_Yeah, lucky me,_ he snorted to himself, _Instead, I just get to lay around and be surrounded by my thoughts. Lucky lucky me. _

Coming up to Cora's street, his pace quickened a little, his chest resulting in the strange constriction he had been feeling the past couple of months. Eyes focusing, they landed on her car, which was snuggly tucked in the driveway. Perfect timing! She was home!

Instead of knocking on the door, he decided to save her the walk down the stairs and just knock on her upstairs window. Lifting himself off the ground, his boosters made little to no sound at all, and he ascended, a giddy feeling bubbling in his imaginary stomach.

Upon reaching the window, he lifted his hand to knock, but stopped mid rise, and stared in amazement. Cora was standing in front of the floor length mirror in her room, hands above her head, putting her long hair in a ponytail. A couple of bobby pins stuck out of the clutches of her perfectly curved mouth, and she reached down to grab a few loose strands that had tumbled around her shoulders.

Her dark hair contrasted so well against the pale skin shown by her gray tank top. Astro held his breath.

_Wow. _

He couldn't help himself from staring at her like he was. Her beauty was so serene; it shouldn't exist. Just like he shouldn't exist.

He never did knock on her window. Instead, his hand fell to his side limply.

He shouldn't exist.

Even though his skin looked and felt like a human; he would never achieve the highest honor he wanted- to become one. And it was so much fun to be around Cora and have her as a friend. But it was torture knowing that he could _never_ be more than that to her. He would have to force himself to sit tight and stand in the shadows someday when she decided to gain a boyfriend- the lucky bastard- and finally find a husband who would be perfect for her, and giver her children and not have super powers.

The anger welled up inside of him. Why did he have to be so…_Astro?_ He would punch her brick wall right now, if not for the fact that he knew his hand would go right through it, and he would have to explain to her parents what had happened.

At that moment of anger and bitterness, he looked up to see Cora looking at him, her hair having been successfully put in a high ponytail. Her smile was wide, and her eyes twinkled like nothing he had ever seen. His chest constricted again, and then turned his head, angry at himself for feeling such things, as she opened the window and breathed his name.

"Astro."


End file.
